After years of failed attempts, the Texas Legislature passed  campus carry  in 2015. Under the new law, effective in 2016 for four-year institutions, public universities must allow the concealed carry of handguns by license holders on their premises. Texas\u27s campus carry law is unique when compared to other states that allow concealed carry on college campuses: each university is given the flexibility to create weapons implementation plans, including the establishment of limited gun-free zones. The first year of campus carry implementation by Texas universities has been relatively quiet, with generally uniform implementation rules established by colleges across the state. However, universities have chosen to exempt out various locations and activities where guns should not be allowed. The flexible Texas law is a model that other states should look to if they are moving towards implementation of campus carry

Short, Aric K.

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Guns on Campus: A Look at the First Year of Concealed Carry at Texas Universities

Texas A&M University School of Law

Texas A&M University School of Law Texas A&M Law Scholarship Faculty Scholarship 9-2017 Guns on Campus: A Look at the First Year of Concealed Carry at Texas Universities Aric K. Short Texas A&M University School of Law, ashort@law.tamu.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar  Part of the Law and Politics Commons, Law and Society Commons, and the Second Amendment Commons Recommended Citation Aric K. Short, Guns on Campus: A Look at the First Year of Concealed Carry at Texas Universities, 80 516 (2017). Available at: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/826 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Texas A&M Law Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Texas A&M Law Scholarship. For more information, please contact aretteen@law.tamu.edu. 516 Texas Bar Journal • September 2017 texasbar.comew topics generate more passion than whether gunsshould be allowed on university campuses. Opponentsraise a variety of concerns: colleges, already filled withstressed and anxious students, could become scenes of deadlyviolence if guns are allowed; armed students will dissuade facultyfrom teaching controversial subjects or challenging perspec-tives; and armed good Samaritans could complicate and delaythe work of trained first responders if violence does erupt. Pro-ponents argue that license holders—by statute at least 21 yearsold and having undergone firearms training—are unlikely tocommit violent acts. They also stress that the right to carry oncampus flows logically from the Second Amendment and thatstudents should have the same ability to protect themselves ina college classroom as they have on a public street. August 1, 2017, marked the one-year anniversary of Texaswading into this policy debate, becoming one of a handful ofstates to allow “campus carry.” The law, passed by the Texas Leg-islature in 2015 and effective in 2016, requires all public univer-sities, and private universities that opt into the law, to allow ontheir premises the concealed carrying of handguns by licenseholders.1 The lead-up to implementation in Texas was emotionaland dramatic: lawsuits were filed to block the law; at least oneuniversity dean resigned rather than implement it; and colorfulprotests were organized. While Texas was not the first state toadopt campus carry, it chose a unique and flexible structure for itslaw. In balancing the right of license holders to carry firearms oncampus with the ability of universities to customize implementa-tion, the law may serve as a blueprint for other states consideringthe sensitive topic of guns on campus.the road to campus carry in texasTexas laws prohibiting the carrying of weapons in certainareas, such as polling places, date back to 1866, and an 1875constitutional amendment recognized the state’s power toprevent crime through firearm regulation.But beginning in 1995, the state allowed residents satis-fying statutory requirements for licensing to carry concealedhandguns in public for personal protection.2 Minor adjustmentswere made to this concealed carry law over the years, but itsbasic framework remained in place until 2015 when theTexas Legislature authorized open carry by license holders.3This broad right to carry weapons in public was not absolute,however. In particular, license holders were prohibited frombringing their weapons into buildings on college campuses.4The university became a focus in the gun rights debatefollowing the massacre of 32 students and faculty by a studentgunman at Virginia Tech in 2007. Serious legislative efforts inTexas to authorize the concealed carrying of guns on collegecampuses began during the following legislative session in2009, but through 2013, proponents fell short of passing someversion of the law. The 2015 legislative session proved more successful for gunrights advocates for two primary reasons. First, guns were a hottopic during the 2014 Texas gubernatorial race, with both majorparty candidates voicing support for expanded gun rights.5 Sec-ond, in 2015, a rule change in the Texas Senate favored gunrights advocates. Until 2014, the Senate required two-thirdssupport, or 21 senators, to bring a bill up for debate on the floor.In 2015, however, the Senate changed its rules to require thesupport of only three-fifths of the 31 members, or 19 senators, todiscuss a bill.6 That year, 19 of the Senate’s 20 Republican mem-bers signed on as authors of a draft campus carry bill, allowing itto be considered by the full body. With this final hurdle cleared,campus carry was approved by the Legislature and signed intolaw by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2015.7campus carry statuteThe core right granted by the Texas law is simple: a licenseholder may carry a concealed handgun on the premises of anypublic, and any opting-in private, educational institution.8To date, only one private college in Texas has implementedcampus carry: Amberton University, which limits enrollmentto “mature, working adult[s]” and provides no student housing,recreational facilities, or dining halls.9Recognizing the unique nature of the student-housingenvironment, the Texas law allows colleges to establish rulesrelating to the storage of handguns in residential facilities. Butthe law makes clear that in regulating such storage, a universitymay not effectively prohibit concealed carry. It also specifiesthe type of notice required to alert the public that concealedcarry is not allowed in areas that are gun-free under state orfederal law or by virtue of a university’s implementing rules.A distinctive aspect of the Texas law is that universitypresidents are given limited discretion to customize campusFGUNSON CAMPUSA look at the first year ofconcealed carry at Texas universities.BY ARIC SHORT HIGHER EDUCATION LAWtexasbar.com/tbj Vol. 80, No. 8 • Texas Bar Journal 517carry for their communities. Before presidents may enact imple-menting rules on campus carry, they are required to consultwith students, staff, and faculty about three topics specific totheir institutions: (1) the “nature of the student population,”(2) “specific safety considerations,” and (3) the “uniquenessof the campus environment.”10 Whatever rules a universitypresident implements following such consultations, theycannot have the effect of generally prohibiting campus carry.11university implementationOnce passed, the campus carry law gave Texas universitiesone year from the legislation’s effective date to consult stake-holders and draft and enact implementing rules. The relevantboard of regents for each university could amend a president’sdraft rules, in whole or in part, on a two-thirds vote.12Viewing the resulting rules across the state, the picture thatemerges is one the Legislature likely intended: the broad right tocarry concealed weapons on campuses customized with limitedexceptions for each university’s unique operations. No universityprohibits guns in classrooms, consistent with advice in a recentopinion from the Office of the Texas Attorney General.13 Andthe ability to ban weapons from offices is not widespread. Thelimited gun-free zones established by universities include sensi-tive areas such as mental health treatment facilities, locationswhere elementary students might be present, and areas whereformal disciplinary adjudications of students take place. Univer-sities also developed processes to identify additional locationsthat might be designated as gun-free if the need arises.14Significant differences also exist among the universities’implementing rules. For example, the issue of weapon storagein dorms is handled in different ways. At least six universitiesprovide storage safes for their students,15 while 16 appear torequire students to provide their own safes.16 At least nineuniversities prohibit possession and/or storage in certain dormswhere there may be a high percentage of younger residents.17The university rules have created uncertainty in someimportant areas. For instance, at least 26 universities havebeen silent on the issue of employee storage of handguns.18When an employee carrying a concealed weapon movesinto an area where weapons are not allowed, what shouldthe employee do? Store the weapon in her car or desk? Is sherequired to buy and install a gun safe in her office? What ifthe employee shares the space with other co-workers? Other inconsistencies arise on topics such as universityspace leased from a third party, the process and criteria fordetermining which additional areas will be designated gun-free, whether university employees (other than police) mayask if someone on campus is a license holder, and whetherwritten or verbal notice is sufficient to satisfy state noticerequirements for areas designated as gun-free.moving forwardSimilar to the experience in other states, the first year ofcampus carry implementation in Texas was uneventful.Despite fears of violent confrontations between studentsand professors or dangerous inadvertent discharges offirearms, there was only one report of a student accidentallyfiring his weapon, and with only minimal property damage.19But compared to those other states, the Texas statutoryscheme is unique, providing a useful balance between ensur-ing the underlying right to carry and allowing universities tocraft implementation rules that are specific to their opera-tions. One cost of flexibility is a lack of uniformity acrosscampus rules, which we have seen this year in Texas. But asuniversities continue to refine and sharpen their rules, theyhave the ability to create policies that are carefully tailoredto meet the needs of their communities. As other states evaluatewhether campus carry should be adopted, the Texas statutoryframework could be a possible model to consider. TBJnotes1. 84th Leg., R.S., ch. 438, § 1, sec. 411.2031, 2015 Tex. Sess. Law Serv. (codified atTex. Gov’t Code § 411.2031).2. 74th Leg., R.S., ch. 229, § 1, art. 4413(29ee), 1995 Tex. Sess. Law Serv. (amendedand re-codified) (current version at Tex. Gov’t Code §§ 411.171–411.209). 3. 84th Leg., R.S., ch. 437, § 1, sec. 11.041(a), 2015 Tex. Sess. Law Serv. (codified atTex. Alco. Bev. Code § 11.041(a)).4. Id. at § 28, sec. 411.2032(b), 2015 Tex. Sess. Law Serv. (codified at Tex. Gov’t CodeAnn. § 411.2032(b)).5. Tom Benning, Abbott reiterates support for campus carry, notwithstanding ‘State of theState’ snub, Dallas Morning News: BLOG (February 18, 2015, 8:55 a.m.)https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2015/02/18/abbott-reiterates-support-for-campus-carry-notwithstanding-state-of-the-state-snub.6. S.J. of Tex., 84th Leg., R.S. 50-86 (2015).7. Act effective August 1, 2016 (codified at Tex. Gov’t Code § 411.2031). 8. Tex. Gov’t Code Ann. § 411.2031(b)–(c), (e) (West, Westlaw through 2017 Reg. Sess.).9. Campus Carry (Senate Bill 11) http://www.amberton.edu/help-and-advice/campus-carry.html (last visited June 16, 2017).10. Tex. Gov’t Code Ann. § 411.2031(d-1).11. Id.12. Id. at (d-2). 13. Tex. Att’y Gen. Op. No. KP-0051 (2015).14. E.g., University of North Texas at Dallas, 12.006 Carrying of Concealed Handguns onCampus (2016); Midwestern State University, Carrying Concealed Handguns on Cam-pus (2016); Angelo State University, Concealed Carry of Handguns on Campus (2017).15. E.g., Texas A&M University, Carrying Concealed Handguns on Campus (2016); TexasA&M University at Texarkana, Carrying Concealed Handguns on Campus (2016); TexasA&M University at Kingsville, Carrying Concealed Handguns on Campus (2016); WestTexas A&M University, Carrying Concealed Handguns on Campus (2016); MidwesternState University, Carrying Concealed Handguns on Campus (2016); Texas A&M Uni-versity at Galveston, Carrying Concealed Handguns on Campus (2016).16. E.g., Texas A&M University at Commerce, Carrying Concealed Handguns on Campus(2016); Stephen F. Austin State University, Campus Carry Quick Information (2016);Sam Houston State University, Concealed Carry Campus Policy (2016); The Uni-versity of Texas at Austin, Handbook of Operating Procedures: Campus ConcealedCarry (2016); Texas Tech University, Concealed Carry of Handguns on Campus(2016); University of Texas at Dallas, Carry of Concealed Handguns (2017). 17. E.g., Texas Tech University, Concealed Carry of Handguns on Campus (2016); Uni-versity of Texas at Dallas, Carry of Concealed Handguns (2017); The University ofTexas at Austin, Handbook of Operating Procedures: Campus Concealed Carry(2016); University of Houston, Manual of Administrative Policies and Procedures(2016); Lamar University, Concealed Handgun Policy http://facultystaff.lamar.edu/policy/campus-carry/provisions-and-justifications.html (last visited July 17, 2017). 18. E.g., Stephen F. Austin State University, Campus Carry Quick Information (2016);Sam Houston State University, Concealed Carry Campus Policy (2016); LamarUniversity, Concealed Handgun Policy http://facultystaff.lamar.edu (last visited July17, 2017); West Texas A&M University, Carrying Concealed Handguns on Campus(2016); The University of Texas at Austin, Handbook of Operating Procedures: CampusConcealed Carry (2016).  19. Claire Z. Cardona, Tarleton State student accidentally fires gun in campus dorm, DallasMorning News (Sept. 15, 2016) https://www.dallasnews.com/news/higher-education/2016/09/15/tarleton-state-student-accidentally-discharges-gun-campus-dorm.Elizabeth Spencer Berthiaume provided valuable research assistance for this article.ARIC SHORTis vice dean of Texas A&M University School of Law, where he assisted inthe implementation of campus carry. The views expressed in this articleare his alone and do not represent those of Texas A&M University. 

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Guns on Campus: A Look at the First Year of Concealed Carry at Texas Universities

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